Report: ACA chief IRS role disputed

The person who oversaw the tax-exempt organizations at the IRS during that unit’s targeting of conservative groups is now in charge of the agency’s Affordable Care Act office, a new report says.

According to ABC News, Sarah Hall Ingram led the section that’s at the heart of this week’s IRS scandal before taking on her new role at the IRS health care section.

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Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, however, told Bloomberg’s Al Hunt that as far as he knows, the timing doesn’t match up.

“So, Al, chronology matters in cases like this,” Lew said on Bloomberg TV’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt.” “I’ve asked some questions since becoming aware of this, and my understanding is her responsibilities moved over from the tax exempt unit to implementation of the Affordable Care Act before there was any opportunity to be involved in this. And I think the implementation of the Affordable Care Act is probably our number one domestic priority, and it’s important that it be done and be done with integrity and it be done effectively.”

Joseph Grant, Hall’s successor who assumed the commissioner of the tax-exempt office earlier this month, will retire on June 3.

The news of Ingram’s previous role comes as the House voted on Thursday, for the 37th time, to repeal Obamacare, with members citing concerns over the IRS role in health care amid news that the agency had targeted tea party-affiliated groups for extra scrutiny.

“It’s certainly a reasonable question to ask if an individuals’ most intimate health care records couldn’t be tapped into, certainly by a federal government employee,” Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has said. “That must never happen and we need to create firewalls to make sure that it doesn’t.”

The Associated Press noted that “The IRS said Ingram was assigned to help the agency implement the health care law in December 2010, about six months before an inspector general’s report said her subordinate, the director of exempt organizations, learned about the targeting,” but also that “Ingram was in charge of the tax exempt division when IRS agents first started targeting conservative groups.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who has introduced legislation that would prevent “the Secretary of the Treasury, or any delegate, including the IRS, from enforcing Obamacare,” slammed the news concerning Ingram in a Thursday statement.

“The official who oversaw the targeting of tea party groups is now in charge of implementing Obamacare at the IRS,” Cornyn (R-Texas) said. “Now more than ever, we need to prevent the IRS from having any role in Americans’ health care.”